The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN) Youth Philippines is collaborating with IBM in reinforcing its COVID-19 information platform in order to respond to the increasing traffic.

By using IBM Watson Assistant, a conversational AI solution designed and trained to understand natural language and interact with users to provide responses to COVID-19 questions, UN SDSN aims to deliver fast and trusted COVID-19 information to Filipinos. Based on its latest data, the average daily conversations increased by 1050% after the virtual agent started using IBM Watson Assistant.

“In these unprecedented times, access to accurate information plays a critical role in allaying fears, dispelling myths and building trust among citizens,” said Aileen Judan-Jiao, president and country general manager, IBM Philippines. “(The collaboration) bears testimony to our commitment to lend IBM’s technology, resources, and people, to support Filipinos with easy access to trusted, relevant information from reliable sources.”

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In April this year, SDSN Youth became part of the UN COVID-19 Response Task Force. With a vision to bring normalcy and empower the citizens, SDSN Youth is fast-tracking initiatives to help the country control and manage COVID-19.

The Philippine UN SDSN Youth has created the Philippine Interactive Dashboard in order to reach as many people as it can who want accurate information on the pandemic.

The platform is a consolidated and comprehensive one-stop-shop for all relevant information on COVID-19. Designed specifically for the Filipinos, especially the youth, the dashboard aims to efficiently learn more about COVID-19 from reputable sources, and presents data in an appealing format. It has been averaging around 200,000 site visits a month as of June 2020.

Virtual agent

The virtual agent can answer citizens’ questions, asking for clarification or redirecting the user to specific information on the dashboard or to other websites of related government departments and official bodies. The virtual agent is deployed in a web browser and it is built in a way that safeguards the privacy of the users.

“Having the Watson Discovery to search through other reputable sources has also further increased the wealth of information we can share with our users,” said Julio Macrohon, overall project lead, UN SDSN Youth Philippines’ Leadership Council. “All in all, this partnership has allowed SDSN Youth to streamline its operations and maximize the time and effort of our volunteers, thus enabling us to better achieve our mission of fighting against both the pandemic and infodemic.”

AI search

The virtual agent is using IBM Watson Assistant, hosted on the IBM public cloud, and state-of-art enterprise AI search capabilities with Watson Discovery to understand and respond to common questions about COVID-19. It leverages trusted information sources, including guidance from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and SDSN Youth’s Philippine Interactive Dashboard.

Using these sources, it understands and responds to common questions including pre-trained COVID-19 symptoms and testing information, public service information, and additional intents organizations can select from IBM’s content catalog. Watson Assistant continuously learns and gets better the more it is trained and used.

“We are currently offering Watson Assistant to local government agencies, businesses, hospitals, or other healthcare organizations while assisting with the initial set up, which can typically be done in just a few days,” said Judan-Jiao. “Organizations can customize the solution to address questions specific to their city or region or integrate IBM Watson Assistant to its existing back-end ERP systems.”

With COVID-19 affecting more countries, areas, and territories globally, IBM is helping government agencies, healthcare organizations, academic institutions, businesses, and NGOs throughout the world use AI to put critical data and information into the hands of their citizens. Aside from the Philippines, IBM Watson Assistant is also currently at work in the COVID-19 initiatives of more than 25 countries and counting, including Thailand, the Czech Republic, and the USA. COVID-19 has changed what normal means for customers, citizens, businesses, government agencies, and healthcare organizations alike. In similar times of uncertainty, IBM has and will continue to leverage its technology and expertise for social good.